Penrith Merida 2007

Merida Photo's

13th May 2007 saw the club take part in their 1st attempt at a marathon event. Everyone signed up to a distance which was a challenge to them whether it is 25Km, 50Km, 75Km and 100Km.
The club used this event to raise some money for the Willowbrook Hospice which is a charity local to St Helens.
The run up to the Merida saw a lot of extra training being put in by members and as such the fitness levels throughout the club rose a notch or two. Unfortunately the weather decided to turn nasty a week before, after a month or so of glorious sunshine the heavens opened for what looked like a wet weekend in penrith.
Friday 11th saw some of the eager beaver members shooting up to Penrith to setup base camp for those following Fri night, Sat and Sun. With tents and gazebos up, the woollies village started to take shape. Those who followed were guided in by mobile phone, “turn left at the first set of tents, right at the portaloo’s, look to the top of the hill you cant miss us”. Well it becomes a bit harder with a few hundred people camped next to you!
Mainly the rain held itself to the evenings and night time and was actually sunny on the Saturday and just right for the marathon itself.
Saturday we all registered and had a walk around the event village, checking out what to spend you’re hard earned on. Personally this is where they need to concentrate a bit more. More stalls are required with a greater selection and also be visa equipped as not all the stalls were and so lost a fortune from my bank manager. The organisation behind was fantastic it just lacked the extra stalls to browse around. It’s got the potential though to grow into a huge event.
Saturday night into Sunday morning, that bloody peacock in the tree over our heads had us up at 5am, so brews on and breakfasts cooked it seemed an age for the 9.30 line up time to come.
With a couple of litres of high5 inside us (courtesy of Thatto cycles) everyone is running for the toilets.
We managed to get the club quite near the front and looking back over a thousand and more cyclists was an awesome sight, we were there in our club tops raring to go, actually very apprehensive about what lay ahead. Ok, ok I was dreading the unknown, never done it before and didn’t know what to expect.
Anyway 10am off we go, nothing too daunting but a mass start is quite breathtaking, you don’t know whether to sprint to get ahead or take your time with a long way in front of you. The first feeding station came up an hour into the ride, really this is far too soon and our first mistake, we stopped to try and regroup. (On the build up we decided to ride as a group and take it easy later on we learnt a hard lesson.) After a few minutes we started to get cold and decided to carry on, at this point Roger had gone on ahead with us to catch up to him. What followed was a nice little downhill, plenty of speed then a women shouting for us to slow down. Ah a hairpin right bend, from there I think we climbed and climbed and walked. The amazing thing throughout was the ground conditions, it seemed to suck your wheel in and was hard going all the way. Then an amazing downhill that saw us flying past people all the way down (see video). Not far from the 2nd feed station we had a puncture so stopped to sort that then got a good picture of us from an on course photographer, then we hit the 2nd feed station. We regrouped here took on extra food and fluids and carried onto a bitch of a climb just before the 75/100Km. Proper hike-a-bike stuff, totally unrideable.
At the split point the marshals told us we couldn’t go onto the 10 Km loop for the 100Km course because we were 20mins outside the cut off point (something we later learnt of by actually reading the rules). I was down for the 75 but was tempted to do the hundred depending how I felt at the split, anyway I was glad I didn’t have to make the decision because I was knackered and I think a few of the 100Km lads weren’t that bothered, as they hadn’t been feeling that great that day.
From the split we took off back to feed station 3 (which was also station 2) onto a long road ride which was great for mile munching but had me worried by the lack of waypoints on this section. By now I was feeling it on a slight uphill track, something you wouldn’t normally sweat on I was off pushing then back on riding then off pushing again. Onto feed station 4 (also the 1st) Basically from here all I wanted was to get back and that’s how I’m going to write this, with the exception of a right bastard switchback grassy climb that sucked your tyres, wheels and bike into it we just rode back, every corner thinking the finish was going to be there. At this point I was riding with Carl and Neil H not far behind when we entered the farm. Definitely done it, the finish is defo round the corner. Oh no it felt like miles further on but with the encouragement of Carl we did it, got the T-shirt and will be back.
As I wrote earlier there were a lot of lessons learnt, you can’t ride the 100Km as a group. On climbs etc were it goes single file you will get separated. If there is only a few of you this isn’t too bad but can string you all over the place in larger groups. Feed stations upto an hour in aren’t worth stopping at, it’s too soon. If possible lightweight is the way to go. I had a 2litre bladder with water and a litre bottle with magic juice in it, I only used my litre bottle and refilled at feed stations. I thought I would get through more fluid but the weather was kind. By flying down the downhill I actually found this very hard work and wondered at the time the impact it would have on my endurance.
Initial thoughts when finishing was that this event was too much hike-a-bike, but am very interested in the other meridas especially the Selkirk round.
Anybody reading this who has thought about events etc then it gets a big thumbs up from me, as a complete novice I never once felt intimidated and that I ‘didn’t belong’ in fact quite the opposite

Ian P-looking forward to more

Merida Photos